# That numeric verb thing again.

Ron Stanions (chaeon@roc.clawpaw.com)
Mon, 19 Feb 1996 11:21:31 PST

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    The more I think about it, the more trouble I see using the numeric verbname thing is going to cause.

    The first and biggest is with .program.  pre 1.8.0,  .program #123:foo or .program #123:3 would access
    the same verb.  now,  in 1.8.0 it becomes 'safe' to create a verb named "3", but now which verb does
    .program #123:3 refer to, the third verb, or the verb named "3" ?   The syntax for .program will have
    to change somewhat.

    Secondly, a lot of verbs that work off of verbnames expect a string argument, and it's a lot easier to
    write verbs for verbs when you always know there's gonna be a string argument. Now, many of those
    verbs that expects a verbname 'should' be modified to deal with a possible numeric argument.

    It seems more of a major overall change to continue to support numeric verb references than to
    just return to the already accepted assumption that you don't write verbs with numeric names.  The
    numeric solution is kinda nice, but it introduces a whole different set of headaches.

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